URGENT: Vote Today on Even More Military Aid to Israel!
May 19th, 2010![]() |
Last week, the Obama Administration notified Israel that it would support the authorization and appropriation of $205 million of U.S. tax-payer money to Israel to purchase ten batteries of the "Iron Dome" missile defense system. |
If authorized and appropriated by Congress, this money would be above and beyond the Obama Administration's record-breaking FY2011 budget request for $3 billion in military aid to Israel. To see how much military aid to Israel your community provides, and what else that money could fund in your community, please click here.
Yesterday, Rep. Glenn Nye (VA-2) introduced H.R.5327, the United States-Israel Missile Defense Cooperation and Support Act. This morning we learned that the House of Representatives will be voting today
on this resolution, which if approved would constitute the first step
in the process of getting this additional military aid to Israel.
Please call your Representative right now and express your opposition to additional military aid to Israel. Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, ask to be transferred to your Representative, and tell him/her to vote NO today on H.R.5327.
Here are a few talking points that you can use when making your call:
* Israeli missile "defense" will increase its offensive capabilities.
Israel is portraying "Iron Dome" as a means to shoot down rockets fired
at its civilian population. Israel, like every other country in the
world, is entitled to self-defense. However,
there are scenarios when a nominally "defensive" weapon such as an
anti-missile battery dramatically changes the strategic balance and
enhances offensive capabilities.
With an effective missile defense shield in place, Israel will feel
emboldened to launch additional wars of aggression, similar to or even
larger in scale than those launched against Lebanon (July-August 2006)
and the Gaza Strip (December 2008-January 2009). In
a future war, the cover of missile defense will allow Israel to kill
thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians as it has done in past
wars without risking any casualties on its side from cross-border
rockets. In other words, war will become risk-free for an already aggressive Israel. It's Palestinian and Lebanese civilians who need a missile defense system from U.S. missiles Israel repeatedly fires at them.
* If Israel wants missile defense, then it should pay for it. President Obama has proposed a record-breaking $3 billion in military aid to Israel in the FY2011 budget. Israel
and Egypt have special exemptions written into the budget that allow
them to spend a certain amount of their military aid on their own
domestic arms industries rather than in the United States. In the
FY2010 budget, this amounted to almost $584 million for the Israeli
weapons industry-enough money for Israel to buy nearly 30 "Iron Dome"
batteries with our money.
The reason why Israel doesn't want to spend its own money-or the money
the United States already gives it-on missile defense is to maximize
its offensive capabilities. According to Ha'aretz, "Iron Dome" funding "was
not allotted an adequate budget. The Israel Defense Forces ducked away
from funding the project with its budget, explaining that offensive
readiness was a higher priority, and the Defense Ministry has been
looking for other budgetary avenues."
* Israel is violating U.S. law by misusing U.S. weapons and shouldn't be eligible for additional aid.
During the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 3,000 innocent
Palestinians, often with U.S. weapons, in violation of the Arms Export
Control Act, which limits the use of U.S. weapons to "internal
security" and "legitimate self-defense." Israel's
illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and
Gaza Strip is not "internal" and intentionally killing civilians and
destroying civilian infrastructure is never "legitimate."